Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has written multiple books, including I Sold My Soul on eBay and The Young Atheist's Survival Guide. He also edited the book Queer Disbelief.
In a time where Donald Trump is riding high on a wave of Christian nationalism, it’s fair to ask where that sort of mentality can take us. What happens when you think the U.S. is a “Christian nation” and conservative, Bible-based policies are the best way to go? Elicka Peterson Sparks, an associate professor of criminology at Appalachian State University, believes that it’s not a coincidence that the most religious parts of the country are also where we see the highest levels of violence. After all, when “sinners” are worthy of biblical punishment and tolerance is treated as a dirty word, it’s no wonder interpersonal relationship are so screwed up. She writes about this in her new book The Devil You Know: The Surprising Link between Conservative Christianity and Crime (Prometheus Books, 2016): In the excerpt below, Peterson Sparks discusses how the fear of death lends itself to this sort of Christian nationalism: Read more
It’s amazing how much Christians will overreact when an atheist politician says some kind, inclusive words before they all get to work. On Thursday, Arizona State Rep. Juan Mendez delivered his third secular invocation on the House floor. (The first time he gave one, a Christian colleague felt obligated to deliver a second Christian invocation the following day.) The only reason it was controversial was because House Majority Leader Steve Montenegro tried to block him from speaking last month, saying there was a rule that all invocations had to be made to a Higher Power. There’s no such rule. After all, that would fly in the face of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Greece v. Galloway, which said that atheistic invocations were legal in government settings alongside religious ones. So Mendez gave his invocation with no reference to a Supreme Deity: Read more
An ex-Muslim on Reddit is celebrating getting out of Saudi Arabia and moving to Canada, where he was born. When he first moved to Saudi Arabia, he was a devout Muslim who “supported apostasy laws,” but he soon realized the horrors of living under Sharia Law — especially when he saw that gay people were being thrown off roofs for the “crime” of homosexuality. Fair warning: the video below describing his journey is graphic: Read more
As we learned last July, Netflix will be airing an original movie later this year based on the life of murdered American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O’Hair: The Most Hated Woman In America will star Melissa Leo (The Fighter). The director is Tommy O’Haver (An American Crime). And just announced yesterday? Actor Peter Fonda will join the cast: Read more